#hzd meta

[h0riz0nstuff]

A Benevolent Eye

[thunderjawsandlightning]

Power in a Name: Nil and Aloy parallels

I've been thinking about the inverse parallels that Nil and Aloy have with social dynamics with their names, and how it gives them a level of understanding that is completely unique to them and how they regard each other. It's something that is unspoken between the two of them, and yet mutually understood, and it gives a level of emotional depth that is immensely cathartic upon the acknowledgement of each other by name.

**spoiler discussion for Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West**

---

Aloy has only ever wanted to know her mother's name; there's connection and lineage and community in the name of your family. For so much of the "tutorial area" in The Embrace and the events leading up to the Proving, her name is not important to identifying her: she is simply known as "motherless" or "outcast" or both. Lansra wants to deny her even being given a name during the opening cutscene -- it's only through Teersa's kindness and calm, firm insistence that she be named facing the sunrise with a Matriarch's blessing.

Across the games, Aloy is given a number of titles from the various tribes: Anointed of the Nora, Savior of Meridian, Hekarro's Champion. All these titles laud her accomplishments and put her on a pedestal of respect; the complete opposite end of the spectrum to when she first interacts with the tribes.

To the Nora, she has gone from the lowest social status in the tribe as an outcast, to Anointed in one fell swoop-- given a sacred status of near-worship and unquestioned acceptance due to the belief that she has spoken directly to All-Mother within the Mountain. This sudden switch is so jarring for her, and also a stark realization that while she thought she was looking for acceptance, she never wanted it like this.

The Carja have always held arrogant views on the other tribes; their advancement in technology and their organized militarization have given them a distinct advantage over all the other tribes, and with it, a sense of superiority. Their culture and their religion reinforce the idea that the Nora are simply savages, with the upper classes seeing them unfit to even deign faux-civil conversation (as seen in the Hunter's Lodge). In the face of the oncoming destruction led by HADES and the Eclipse, Aloy's victory is seen as heroic and put onto both a figurative and literal pedestal in a display of zealous admiration for her accomplishment at slaying Helis, Terror of the Sun, and saving Meridian from certain doom.

The Tenakth, viciously protective of their land and people, are already disinclined to allow outlanders to walk their Clan Lands in the aftermath of the Red Raids. Fashav tells us that without proper right of passage the Tenakth would attack Aloy on sight, no questions asked, regardless of the importance of her mission. Following the Embassy, the events at the Bulwark, and the defense of the Kulrut, Aloy quickly gains a fearsome reputation and accompanying moniker of Hekarro's Champion -- again, a title of her accomplishments.

Throughout all of her journey, she does her very best to be known by her own name, not by any grand title or reputation of great renown, but simply as the huntress Aloy. She rebuffs most greetings of her monikers with "Just Aloy." in a clear and direct attempt to be met as a person instead of by the sheer force of her reputation as told by others.

So much of her life has been under the weight of other people's perceptions of who they think she is: a larger-than-life-figure, a mysterious huntress with second sight, a formidable warrior even by the standard of great warriors. Even her perception of herself in shadowed by the width and breadth of Elisabet's legacy and sacrifice. Is it too much to ask for her to simply be seen and known as herself, and just as that?

---

Nil, conversely, has been known by many names, most of his own choosing. Names are evidently important to Carja culture, as many have epithets or titles to indicate their standing or calling, like Mournful Namman, Studious Vuadis, Javad the Willing, or Well-Traveled Aram. Nil seems to shed names as easily as Aloy does armors, changing and adapting and letting go of past personas quite easily. A name to the Carja is connection, power, and reputation. As we meet Nil, he introduces himself and is then known by a name of his own choosing: one that literally means "nothing". Every name we know him by is one made to embody a new persona, with no connection to his lineage.

Upon first meeting, he introduces himself by telling Aloy to "…call [him] Nil." Notice the wording: "call". Not "My name is…" His phrasing is distinct and deliberate, and majority of the conversation you have with Nil after completing the Devil's Thirst bandit camp is vague in terms of his origins, skirting around clear details and speaking in obfuscated references to past events. Through Janeva, Warden of Sunstone Rock, we learn that "Nil" is not his first name, although it remains uncertain if he was known by his true name or another during his time at Sunstone.

ALOY: Do you know a…hunter…named Nil? He told me about this place.   JANEVA:Nil? That’s what he calls himself now?  Is he well?

2. To the Carja, he is known by reputation and rumour, war stories and whispers; renowned enough that he is recognizable by common Carja Guard, and feared enough that they do not speak his name. It is likely he was given some kind of moniker or a name of near-boogeyman-like status, given the prayer of protection the guard mutters after Nil offhandedly addresses them.

CARJA GUARD 1: Isn’t that…him? From the battle of the Daunt? CARJA GUARD 2: Can’t be.  Cinnabar Sands was before that, and there were no survivors.   NIL: Well, I don’t like to boast.   CARJA GUARD 2: O Sun, keep the shadow from falling upon me.

He knows his reputation carries further than where he walks, and while he acknowledges its connection to him, he still would prefer to be somewhat removed in its association, of the elaboration and hyperbolic storytelling of past deeds and, perhaps, misdeeds.

3. Addressing the animosity held by the neighbouring tribes from the events of the Red Raids, there is one tribe Nil holds to a status of respect and equal regard: the Tenakth. He highlights a kinship and mutual understanding of the need for a fight and the desire of spilled blood; one that Fashav echoes as well:

"As you may have noticed, violence is the native tongue of the Tenakth. To survive, one must master it."

He sheds the skin of Nil the Bandit Hunter for Red Teeth the Racer, to meet the Rebel defectors on equal ground, to fight for respect on their chosen battleground the way Tenakth warriors of the past had fought their way into his respect with their martial prowess and skill. The name he gives them is, again, one he chooses, with no obvious attachment to the past, only embracing the change and growth that is to come with reinventing yourself. Nil chooses to be perceived by the world in a way that is not derived from or reliant on his family name, the heritage that comes with it, or the socio-cultural weight it carries to be recognized as Carja.

---

Aloy is given many names by the tribes and people she meets on her journey, but only wants to be known by her own name, to know her own heritage and lineage. In seeking that out, she is both empowered and staggered by the knowledge, and it changes her perspective on who and what she feels she has to live up to -- her tribe's expectations, her predecessor's hopes and wishes for the future world, her own expectations of herself. In the face of that knowledge, she doesn't leave herself the room to consider herself, but still wants to be acknowledged as an individual. Nil does so, and savours the knowledge of her name like a gift:

ALOY: …Nil?  NIL: Aloy.  They told me your name, I said hair like a splash of blood, tenacious as a Scrapper’s jaws. [Main Quest: The Looming Shadow]

Nil gives out new names to be known by --names of his own choosing -- in an act through which he is deliberately shedding the weight, status, and legacy of his birth name, leaving it behind. Instead, he transforms into a different version of himself, one unburdened by birthright and tribal ties.

RED TEETH: That was a well-earned win.  One that merits speaking face to face.   ALOY: Nil?!? NIL: You have to admit, I put on a good show. [The Stillsands Gauntlet race, Condition: Win]

Nil knows implicitly that he can share this secret with her -- the secret of his identity as Carja, a danger in hostile Tenakth Clan Lands. And Aloy still trusts him, still respects him, to keep his secret, even with the secrecy of his bloodied history hanging in slight tension with the circumstances and the environment he's found a home in. Even so, she still calls him by the name he asked to be called by:

ALOY: I’m glad you found your thing, Nil.  Relieved, actually…I think. 

And what a catharsis it is, then, to be known and recognized by the name you yourself value, by the only other person who could understand the weight and power in a name:

NIL/ RED TEETH: I’ll leave you to it.  See you when you feel the need, Aloy. 

[kittleskittle]

been spending my Friday afternoon mulling over HFW and BS meta-wise, and my GOD I am so anxious about h3, I feel like I'm going to lose my mind. Warning: rant with personal opinions below.

More and more as the series progresses, spectacle and shock value have been prioritized over theme and emotional beats. Nothing is given room to develop organically. There's no time to breathe in the narrative. Quiet moments to process all of these SHOCKING DEVELOPMENTS (a very special fuck you to Liberation and their horrifying assassination of Avad for zero narrative reason) keep diminishing. Everything is a World Ending Threat™ that must be resolved IMMEDIATELY, so much so that I've started rolling my eyes every time the latest Big Bad End of the World scenario is revealed.

I suppose my biggest question is: what happened? HZD, to me, was a masterclass in thematic and character writing. I was so emotionally connected to Aloy that I felt as though I was experiencing the events of the game alongside her. The themes resonated with me in a way I very rarely have experienced. I literally could not shut up about this game the first time I played it years ago (big thanks to my incredibly patient friends and family for putting up with me LOL). How did the writing priorities and focus shift this hard?

HFW lost me, and BS even moreso. I don't feel connected to Aloy as a character anymore. I don't feel connected to a great deal of the side characters I used to connect with. The fact that BS was conceived as a "Hollywood Blockbuster" makes a depressing amount of sense, but goddamn, it's NOT at all what Aloy deserved for such a momentous experience as her first love, an event this series has been building towards - and yes, we know this from dev commentary - from the start. Regardless of how h3 turns out when it comes to romance, I'm going to stay bitter about that one.

I think h3 is going to have to do a LOT of work to pull me back in, and I'm afraid that it's not even possible at this point. I'm afraid we're going to get more of the same big flashy battles, this time with the Karen Reaper Spaghetti ball that is Nemesis, with little room leftover for substance. I'm afraid that I'm going to put down that game and feel unsatisfied and empty rather than complete and fulfilled by a trilogy of games over a decade in the making.

And that, to me, is going to be a really depressing end to a series that started out so strong.

[anosrepasi]

10 Character/10 Fandoms/10 Tags

Tagged by the wonderful @aeide :)

Nil (Horizon Dawn Zero/Forbidden West) - My current obsession I'm rotating around in my mind. What's not to love he's charming in the sense that his most common AU occupation is "Serial Killer." Will he kill you? Depends! Only if you suck, and he promises to never stab you in the back, he wants to look you in the eye if he tries to kill you. But actually, I find him utterly fascinating and in the context of HZD he's just. so nuanced it destroys me. This man has decades of c-ptsd and asks the question of what happens when someone drenched in violence is suddenly expected to stop fighting- the answer is, it takes a lot! I adore him.

Kassandra (AC:Odyssey) - Look the more I think about Kassandra and like the canon quests in that game the more I'm like. They did you wrong, girl. They did you so dirty. SHE JUST WANTS TO GO HOME. IT TAKES DECADES. HER STORY IS A FUSION OF THE ODYSSEY AND THE ILIAD. YOU CAN APPLY THEMES FROM BOTHA ND IT DRIVES ME INSANE. And. And then they say, all thsi you worked so hard for? Well. We have other things we need from you. I am going to chew through my arm.

Mizu (Blue Eye Samurai) - Look. I could link thousand upon thousands words of meta about Mizu and her/they're relationship to gender and existence as a mixed race individual in isolationist Japan. And it still wouldn't capture it all. And past that it's hot person brutally murdering people in absolutely fantastically animated fight scenes.

Vincent Valentine (Final Fantasy VII) - Look. He's my original blorbo. I saw 10 minutes of screen time of him in Advent Children and have been insane ever since. I bought and played through Dirge of Cerberus for him. Something about him apparently just imprinted on me as a child, I've been a lost cause ever since.

Xaden Riorson (Fourth Wing/Iron Flame) - These books are still relatively new so I'll hold my tongue since a lot of what I am obsessed with re: him is spoilers but oh my god. oh. my. god. buddy.

Axel (Kingdom Hearts) - Also an original blorbo from childhood, imprinted on him like a baby duck. His death in KH2 made me bawl. His entire storyline makes me sob, he's the reason why every single aspect of Roxas' story was a gut punch cause like. The best way to make people care about characters is give them someone who loves them then make it sad.

Charles Milton Porter (Bioshock 2: Minerva's Den) - Look. This dude's DLC made me cry. big cry. I still kinda get choked up when i think about it for a while. it's about the grief.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits - I can't choose a characters from this, so I just advise everyone to play this game. It's so good. You're going to be emotionally devastated. It's also about grief. Every character in this game is so so good and you will feel things.

Joe Miller (The Expanse) - He was not the first but he was my defining love of shitty noir space detectives. I loved him from when he was introduced to when he left the series and my love was rewarded so much. Holden and Amos were the runner up characters for this fandom.

Death (The Book Thief) - I read the book thief for the first time in 7th grade I think? Every day of my life since them on my commute to work or when on break I look at the sky and think about how Death would describe the taste of the colors. This book irrecoverably changed me from the day I read it and firmly cemented this Death as the death i hope is there at the end of everything, i love this version of it so much. This death is like. look. go read the book if you haven't had the opportunity.

Tagging for anyone who wants to do it: @ongreenergrasses @lobstermatriarch @airmidcelt @tirsynni @aevallare @duesternis @salsedine @avelera @thehoundkeeper @green-nbean

[focusontheheart]

Meet the Team - Cor, Social Media

Say hi to our Social Media Lead, Cor, who's handling our social accounts! You can find her on: Tumblr: @thunderjawsandlightning

Hello! I’m Cor, a meta analysis nerd at heart with a magpie brain focused on collecting specific amounts of information together into compilation documents in my spare time, especially character dialogue.  I’ve only been creating for the Horizon fandom for a couple years now, but have been consuming fics for far longer, shortly after I started playing the HZD Complete Edition.  I am constantly inspired by my fandom fellows and our chats about Nil and Aloy's character meta, some of which have prompted me to pick up writing again for the first time since a single writing class I took in my first year of university.  Currently, I’m an aspiring writer with too many WIPs and ideas piling up, with the dream of writing a Niloy character study longfic or an original poetry-and-prose anthology in the future. 

Q&A

What is a favourite piece of work you've done  (i.e. completed, working on, in concept), OR what is something you’ve always wanted to create for fandom? 

My beloved pet project (that is in a constant state of WIP) “Of Blood, Steel & Sand” is a character study of Nil and the things in his life that have defined him that I really need to finish, and I have several in-concept ideas for a Horizon daemon!au fic that I am always thinking about.

I also have transcripts of GAIA Cast episodes and some other compilation docs on my tumblr!

What are some of your favourite tropes (to read, write, draw, etc)?

Always a fan of nonchalant injuries + “but i could have lost you” for the emotional angst, and redemption arcs where the the characters are set up from the beginning as narrative foils and parallels.

What is an unexpected thing or fun fact about you?

I have a circa 100 year old hand-crank sewing machine that I sometimes use to make my own clothes.

What has been your favourite thing about working on this project so far?

It has been such a delight seeing the community creativity! And getting a peek into people’s brainstorming process for a narrative collaboration has been so fascinating and inspiring, I am feeling the itch to write again.

[foibles-fables]

For hawk and thrush : 16 and 28.

16. Do they steal each other's clothes and does it sometimes end with them also claiming some of them as their own after a long while of "borrowing" it already?

This concept always makes me giggle re: the Carja Blazon Master armor from HZD, heheh. But in a non-meta sense, yes, absolutely. They're a similar height and build, so I'd like to think the staple garments of their closet are shared pretty freely (i.e., no Aloy absolutely isn't wearing fancy silks often, if at all, but she'll for SURE steal Talanah's comfy sleep shorts).

One item that Talanah does steal with regularity are Aloy's linen shirts (think the undershirt of the Sparkworker armor from HZD). She'll wear one until Aloy's scent fades, then sneak it back into Aloy's wardrobe to recharge it.

28. Who loves planning out their romantic dates the most?

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say Aloy. Her truly unique perspective on the world would give rise to some interesting and surprising date ideas, I think. By virtue of her personality, she'd also be very intuitively good at making them romantic without being overwrought.

[bipedalseal]

4, 19?

4. Movie of the year?

Hmm. If "of the year" we mean "watched this year" then it would be Wolfwalkers. Loved the art. Loved the commentary on colonization--both of the movie's and the company's that I watched with. A Marxist was there with us and a bunch of artists rin and we're all Filipino so we had a whale of a time.

If "of the year" we mean "released this year" then Nope (2022). Still haven't gotten around to watching it (I have been unsuccessfully trying to get my siblings and friends to watch it with me but alas) so I've been microwatching it by reading metas and checking out gifsets. I love Jordan Peele's work, god. Very excited for the hot red cowboy (forgot his name).

19. What’re you excited about for next year?

Local aro and ace group will be having a meetup, a bit far away from me but I'm excited and i'm planning on going. I'm not very social honestly but being with queer people IRL does wonders for the health. Friend is also having a birthday sometime in March (already forgot the exact date...!) and I'm having a blast thinking of a gift for them. My sister and I might also buy Horizon: Forbidden West at this time, really really excited since I love HZD and I love watching my sister play. I'll also be getting my own bank account so there's that. I'll finally have a Paypal hopefully! And I'll be able to buy stuff on itch and gumroad.

Thanks for the ask nonnie. I was honestly surprised that I had a bunch of things lined up for 2023.

[the-bookwyrm]

Here are a list of my general fandoms with the tag I use for them, in case you'd like to blacklist any of them, or just get a quick glance at what I'm into!

I can't promise to get all of them lol, but here's a good attempt!

And if you want to look at any of these in particular, plug them in after https://the-bookwyrm.tumblr.com/tagged/

General tags:

Art (all non fanart art)

BOOKS (posts about books in general)

Fandom (stuff about fandoms in general)

Fanart (art for all fandoms)

Ficlet (my general tag for all writing and fics and whatnot)

Meta (meta for all fandoms)

Fandom tags:

Assassin's Creed (all) - ac At the Feet of the Sun - atfots Avatar: The Last Airbender - atla Batman related things - batfam BBC Merlin - merlin Breath of the Wild - botw Chronicles of Narnia - con Circle of Magic Books (all) - com Danny Phantom - dp DC Comics - dc Dead Boy Detectives - dbda Discworld Books (all) - Discworld Doctor Who - dw Dragon Age (all) - da Dragon Age 2 - da2 Dragon Age: Inquisition - dai Dragon Age: Origins - dao Dropout Game Changer - game changer Dropout shows in general - dropout Dune - dune Everything Everywhere All At Once - eeaao Fallout (all) - fo Fallout New Vegas - fnv Fallout 4 -fo4 Fullmetal Alchemist - fma Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga - fmms Good Omens - go Gravity Falls - gf Hands of the Emperor - hote Heaven Official's Blessing - hob Horizon Forbidden West - hfw Horizon Games - horizon Horizon Zero Dawn - hzd Howl's Moving Castle - hmc Justice League, Justice League Unlimited - jl/u Legend of Zelda (in general) - loz Lord of the Rings - lotr Mad Max Fury Road - mmfr Mass Effect - mass effect Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries - mfmm MXTX Books (all) - mxtx Nine Worlds Books (all) - nine worlds Oxenfree - oxenfree Percy Jackson Books (all) - pjo Phineas and Ferb - pnf Pride and Prejudice - p&p Protector of the Small Series - pots Pushing Daisies - pd Russian Doll - rd Sandman - sandman Scum Villain's Self Saving Service - sv Shakespeare - shakespeare She-Ra: Princesses of Power - spop Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse - atsv Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse - sits Spidervese Movies (in general) - spiderverse ST Deep Space Nine - ds9 ST The Next Generation - tng ST The Original Series - tos ST Voyager - voy Star Trek (all) - st Star Wars - sw Stardew Valley - sdv Steven Universe - su The Adventure Zone - taz The Adventure Zone: Balance - tazb The Goblin Emperor - tge The Good Place - tgp The Hobbit - hobbit The Hunger Games - thg The McElroys (in general) - mcelroys The Murderbot Diaries - mbd The Old Guard - tog The Untamed - tu Tomb Raider (all) - tr Tortall Books (all) - tortall Undertale - ut (Complaining about) Harry Potter - hp crit

[all-pacas]

okay i was just talking about this on discord but wanted to post it on tumblr too, and that being what is for me the fundamental disconnect of erend’s character.

and that is this:

erend is about twenty five in the game. give or take a couple of years. we don’t actually know for sure, but it seems like a safe guess, as avad is in his early thirties (was around thirty when the revolution happened), ersa was probably about his age, and erend is her younger brother. 25-30.

erend is young. he’s sheltered and protected and naive. his sister has always taken care of him and he’s never had to act on his own, make his own decisions. in the guidebook they even outright state that erend thought of her as a surrogate parent. erend is young. he is immature for his age. he makes a fool of himself when he meets aloy, he acts kind of inappropriately trying to hit on her: it’s not harmful, just awkward and unwanted and he completely misses that it is. (contrast this with the older avad, who also makes aloy uncomfortable later on and then realizes and sincerely apologizes — avad isnt better, he’s just. older. he’s a functional adult. and erend is young and immature for his age.)

and it isn’t a bad thing that erend is immature and young for his age. he comes from a background of abuse and neglect and leans heavily on his sister to the point of using her as a crutch — the guidebook mentions that ersa took the same abuse and used it as a reason to be hyper-successful at everything she did, to push herself; the liberation comic shows her as stoic, rarely smiling, and in both that and the games she is very much the person who everyone relies on. she becomes the Caretaker, the Responsible One, the Problem Solver. she’ll make hard decisions so avad doesn’t need to; she’ll deal with dervhal personally so no one else is involved; she’ll take care of erend so that he never has to grow up. as she lies dying after weeks of imprisonment and physical torture, she remains stoic, thinking only of the need to protect others. and yes she was fridged and i’m mad about it, but it’s telling: even in the moment of her death, she’s trying to Take Care Of Things. she tells him it’stime to grow up. she can no longer protect him.

and so when she dies suddenly, erend breaks down. absolutely cannot function. he’s immature! not as an insult but as a fact, he has literally never had to live as an independent person or adult. so he goes on a messy breakdown all over meridian, clings to the idea that maybe he can get revenge or something? or hey! maybe ersa is still alive! he tries to rope aloy into his denial and she is not having it and hilariously only reluctantly agrees to start his side quest (when normally you just need to point her in the direction of a needy npc for her to go hunting sawtooth hearts or something). erend is a hot mess, because he is fundamentally still immature. he is still a child.

now let’s talk about varl.

[img described: varl from horizon zero dawn. he is a young Black man with blue face paint wearing a mix of furs and metal armor. he has short hair in a mixed undercut and short dreads style.]

varl, according to the guidebook, is 25-26 during the game. this makes sense. he looks pretty young, but he’s an established fighter and member of nora society presented as a few years older than 19 year old aloy. he comes off as pretty quiet and mature and reasonable, but also tends to rush headfirst into battle and danger despite his ‘cooler’ exterior: he’s secretly kind of a hothead! he and aloy basically reenact the “you fight good” scene from mulan! he reads easily as a dude in his mid twenties: an adult who knows himself and is pretty capable, but who is still young enough to get affected by his mother’s emotional neglect and carried away by his impulses.

he is the same age as erend.

that erend is more immature is fine; they’re different people in different circumstances and erend was pretty coddled but ersa. it’s not a contest. but varl acts and looks like a dude in his twenties who is doing his best…

and erend acts like it, but is voiced and modeled after a dude in his forties.

[img desc: erend from hzd. he’s a large, white man with a brown mohawk and a truly wild mutton chops/mustache, wearing an orange scarf and brown metal armor]

erend just does not look like he’s young. he looks easily ten years older than varl, and that’s fine, the fact that erend is about 25 isn’t relevant in the game really, except that his immaturity absolutely is. and it reads very differently from a man who looks and sounds like he’s 40 than from someone barely out of his teenage years.

i spent the entire game thinking i should probably like erend but just being driven a little crazy by him. “get over yourself,” i’d think, even though half the characters in this game are dealing with grief and acting it out in various ways: vengeance and denial and desperation to find her mother from aloy, wishy-washy indecision from avad, who is also suffering from a lack of Ersa Handling Shit, major depression and suicidal thoughts from elida, confusion and an urge to prove himself in varl’s case. that erend reacts with emotions and messiness is fine, it’s just that his messiness is written as so young and he’s designed to look and sound like a 40 year old. he has a good design and his voice and appearance match really well — great casting — but it just doesn’t fit. he’s varl’s age. he’s not much older than aloy and acts like her contemporary. but he doesn’t look like it, and it throws me every time.

[asolitaryrose]

i love how much this game loves humans, and how it shows how insignificant we are but at the same time how precious human existence is. how we, no matter when or where we live, all love, feel, grow, learn, and how extraordinary those little acts, those little stories, are in the grand scheme of things. how we do the same stupid shit throughout the centuries, all because it makes us happy. 

a thousand years ago two girls founded a band in a water dam facility because the acoustic of the metal pipes were exceptionally good, and because they were bored at their job. cue catastrophic event, mass extinction, loss of knowledge and humanity going back to square one... and there are still humans making music by banging on the metal pipes of a derelict water dam because it makes them happy. i love it. i love this game.

[system-threat-detected]

So I’m running a D&D game set in the Horizon universe, so I think about a lot of unnecessary worldbuilding stuff, like main exports/imports of tribes, what resources they might have available to them based on in-game evidence, and other stuff. It got me thinking about their clothes. Specifically the stranglehold the Oseram seem to have on linen. 

I don’t actually know a lot about clothes, cloth, or armor, so take that as you will. It’s something that vaguely interests me, but most of my knowledge comes from quick google searches, or that one time I went down a cloth-based rabbit hole on Wikipedia, so please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong about stuff. 

Out of all of the tribes that we see in-game, the Oseram are the only ones who use (what I’m assuming to be) linen in their armor. While this can be chalked up to design language - trying to get us to read someone as Oseram at a glance just by looking at them - I’m going to read more into it. 

Flax, the plant that linen is made from, grows well in Idaho/The Claim, and enriches the soil with nitrogen, blooms early, and is easily replaced by native plants, making it ideal for terraforming that part of the US. It would make sense for DEMETER to put it there, meaning the Oseram would be the ones who produced and sold the linen found everywhere else in game.

[ID: three Oseram mercenaries, dressed in leathers, metal, and cloth. end description.] 

Your average Oseram citizen also wears this cloth, though most of them seem to be wearing forge-worthy leathers (which could pass as armor anyways) based on my exploration of Pitchcliff and Free Heap. 

Another demographic who wears this non-leather cloth are common Carja citizens, as well as the poor/displaced people of Sunfall. More wealthy citizens and outlanders wear silk, and the nobles wear almost exclusively silk(Charles why did you think putting silkworms in the middle of Utah was a good idea? They are not native animals. Charles the silkworms that produce usable amounts of silk have been so domesticated they can’t even survive in the wild anymore. Charles silkworms can ONLY eat Mulberry tree leaves, which, thinking about it, I may actually have found in The Jewel. Charles pls.), but that’s a topic for another post. 

[ID: Five Carja citizens from the Horizon Zero Dawn art book. Two are labeled “Craftspeople Woman” and “Craftspeople Man”, who appear to be wearing mostly linen and some silk. One is labeled “Artisan”, and is wearing some linen, a lot of silk, and some decorative machine parts. The last two are labeled “Villager Man” and “Villager Woman”, and are wearing all linen, no silk. End description.] 

It makes sense that the Carja have access to this linen, as they canonically have good trading relations with the Oseram. 

It’s also worth pointing out that black/purple dye is time consuming and extremely difficult to do. The shadow Carja/Eclipse made it part of their Whole Aesthetic, which I find hilarious(but looking deeper into the implications, horrified). They’re canonically starving all the time and they still find the time to dye black clothes. 

[ID: A turnaround of an Eclipse thug, whose outfit is mainly tattered, deep black cloth, with some dark red, bullets, and a white mask. End description.] 

Black dye can come from chestnut trees, so there is, in fact, an in-game basis for this, as I found chestnut trees in The Jewel while looking for avocado trees, but I’m even more incredulous they figured out how to make purple. The most likely sources, since they obviously don’t have access to that super exclusive Mediterranean shellfish, are Rocky Mountain Irises, Blackberries, Elderberries, or Daylilies, none of which I have seen in game, but can grow in the Utah area.

We can interact with exactly one Utaru in the whole game, but the concept art for them appears to be mostly woven/dried plant leaves or leather, and some machine parts.

[ID: The front and back views of two Utaru. They both are wearing outfits with strips of dried plants or leather woven together in alternating black and yellow patterns, a mysterious mint green cloth, red feathers, a little bit of black fur, and a dried grass cape. Both are wearing hats made of woven plant/leather, machine parts, and what appears to be wood. End description.]

Looking at Rea, the Utaru we interact with in-game, the mysterious mint green is toned back to a more natural green, and it actually looks more like leather than fabric.

[ID: A waist-up in-game rendering of Rea, an Utaru woman. The rendered textures make everything previously assumed to be cloth or plant fiber, besides her grass cape, look like leathers that have been tanned differently. End description.] 

It’s possible the Utaru have access to cotton, but there simply isn’t enough in-game information to confirm or deny that. 

The Banuk and Nora tribes overwhelmingly use leather and hide, along with assorted machine parts (like metal or cables) in their wardrobe. It makes sense for them to be dressed this way, as where they live is colder than the Sundom or Plainsong. I have, however, noticed there are strips of cloth used in their outfits. 

[ID: Four generic Banuk warriors, wearing leathers dyed their traditional light greens, blues, yellows, and reds. Their heavy, warm outfits also include furs which range from, and sometimes gradient from, blacks to whites. There are strips of what appears to be vibrant blue cloth wrapped around their limbs, as well as attached to their weapons. End description.] 

The blue cloth the Banuk use to tie their boots up/their arm wraps on and on their spears is obviously a reference to the Blue Light, and is the only cloth in their outfits. The rest is warm leathers or furs. Their territory, Ban-Ur, is mostly covered in glaciers, so it makes sense they’d opt for overall warmer clothes.

While we know from Bergrund that the Banuk don’t like trading for ‘necessities’, it is possible that the easily-dyed blue cloth is one of the things they will trade for, as it holds religious symbolism for them.  

And the Nora:

[ID: Concept art of four generic Nora Braves, all wearing outfits comprised of natural leathers, white machine metal, and blue machine cables. End description.] 

[ID: Aloy wearing the Nora Silent Hunter Heavy armor. The armor is mostly made of natural leathers, but there is a green and blue net woven of some unknown material. End description.]

The green/blue net/rope stuff we see in Nora outfits is most likely woven from natural fibers taken from dogbane, nettle, or milkweed. 

Aloy’s scarf looks like it’s made of silk, 

[ID: An in-game image of Aloy. She is wearing the armor Teb made for her, and is standing in the dappled shadow of a tree. Her blue scarf is shining like silk. End description.]

But there’s a possible explanation: It’s the same one she had as a kid, that Rost wrapped her in as a baby. He was a well-traveled man, maybe he found it while he was on his vengeance quest, and kept it because it reminded him of his wife/daughter or something. (She’s wearing her baby blanket around her neck)

This, however... 

[ID: An in-game rendering of Olara, a Nora woman who is wearing an outfit made of natural leathers, dark blue netting, a dark blue cloth sash, leather belts, and what appears to be a knit wool shoulder cowl. End description.] 

Ma’am where did you get that wool. There are no sheep here. The Banuk have all the goats, and they don’t even use them for that. There are no Angora rabbits here. No alpaca. And yet. There you are. With your knit wool(?) shoulder cowl. Someone please help me out here. What could that be made out of. 

And then there are the Tenakth. The game doesn’t specifically state where they are from, but since only Carja texts seem to mention them, and the Banuk/Oseram/Nora lore we are provided doesn’t mention them at all, I’m assuming they’re south of the Sundom, kind of around Arizona/New Mexico area. So like. Hot. Dry. Sunny. I’d argue that what little we have seen of their designs supports this. 

[ID: Concept art of members of the Tenakth clan, shown from two different angles, one male, one female. Both are, wearing classic Tenakth blue and red body paint with thin white lines. Both are wearing light armor around their neck and forearms, and the woman is wearing a red chest wrap that appears to be made of cloth. They are both wearing skirts made of woven plant fiber, green, yellow, and red dyed leather, and red leg wraps. End description.] 

The body paint we see could easily double as natural sunblock, since they clearly don’t have the light, airy Carja silks to keep the sun off their backs. But I’m getting distracted again. 

[ID: An in-game rendering of Ullia, a Tenakth woman. The texture pattern on her clothes suggest the red material around her chest, arms, and legs, is in fact, cloth, while the strips of material around her waist and upper thighs are leather. She is also wearing shin-guards that appear to be made of dried bamboo. End description.] 

BAMBOO???? What does it MEAN?? (After a quick google search, I learned that bamboo does, in fact, grow in the Americas. A quick google search informed me it is native to a lot of South America, Central America, and the Southeastern United States. Why or how it got to the Southwestern States is beyond me, but it’s making me think the Tenakth territory (The Clan-Lands) is a lot wetter than I originally thought. Or they stole it from whoever boarders the eastern part of their territory.) But again, I’m getting off topic. Back to cloth. 

The Tenakth are known for raiding, and taking what they believe to rightfully belong to the strong, so even though they’re nowhere near The Claim, it’s likely they have stolen a linen from the Carja, but not enough to be able to consistently make a whole outfit out of it. They seem to just use it where it would be the most useful, like for attaching the bamboo/machine metal to themselves as armor. This lines up with having a scarcity of a certain material, so I’m pretty satisfied with this explanation. 

This concludes my long and unnecessary analysis of Horizon world clothing styles. I hope you all had as much fun reading this as I did figuring it out!

BONUS:

[ID: A still from the Horizon: Forbidden West trailer, showing two members of the unnamed clan that lives in what was once the Yosemite area. They are both wearing outfits made of leathers, scavanged machine parts, natural rope/string bindings, and carved wood. End description.]

Whoever these guys are, they don’t look like they have cloth, but they’re likely capable of growing flax, if I’m right about where they’re from. 

And the other one: 

[ID: A still from the Horizon: Forbidden West trailer, showing a person standing in a field of red vines, holding a withered carrot in their hand. They are wearing a yellow and green outfit, which appears to be made mostly of woven leaves and leather. End description.]

These people who appeared in the HFW trailer, who I’m no longer convinced are Utaru, don’t look like they have cloth either, but we don’t really get a good look at their outfits in the one scene they appear in the trailer. 

[thunderjawsandlightning]

The story that the Matriarch is telling seems to be akin to a creation myth, a more esoteric explanation of how the world came to be. The "faithless" appears to be the broader term of anyone who isn't considered Nora or proto-Nora; an explanation as to the existence of people outside the Embrace. A "they had to come from somewhere, so they must have come from here" kind of situation.

The Nora creation myth is definitely a establishment of the values they hold (do not worship metal; it caused the downfall of all others), what separates them from the perceived out-groups (the "true people" live only within the Embrace, all others are "faithless"), and tenets that reinforce the community in a tribal setting (All-Mother provided for us this world we build and uphold with our own hands).

The thing I am most interested in is the recall and dissemination of history of the Nora compared to the Carja, since the former has oral traditions which can only be found in specific incidences, whereas the Carja , with their written records, have much more accessible reference. The history of these two tribes in intertwined in a way that none of the others can really compare to, having become two entirely separate and distinct tribal group -- quite unlike the Tenakth who merely split into different clans under one tribe.

The sixth Scanned Glyphs datapoint titled The Founding of Meridian details Araman finding the "Leaves of the Old Ones", and that the glyphs they now use came from those writings, used so "our knowledge could last longer than our voices". It explicitly details that they left the "Savage East"; terminology they still use in contempt of the Nora now. As important foundational history to their tribe, the Carja clearly have included this significant event in the telling of who they are as a tribe and how they came to be; the Nora, even in ambient dialogue, do not refer to the Carja as much more than "slavers and killers".

The Carja split from the Nora is reasonably well within the last hundred or so years: if the Carja have existed for, say, 100 years, the average reign of the previous thirteen Sun-Kings is 7.7 years -- removing Avad from the calculation due to an exact number of years of his reign being known (3 years) from Scanned Glyph datapoints (Record of Redmaw 1 and 2). Most notable events occur in the 4th, 7th, or 8th year of past Sun-Kings (datapoints: History of Sunfall, Legendary Hunts) so even 150 years of the Carja's tribal existence averages around 11.5 years per king, and within a reasonable timeline. The Carja-Nora split would then theoretically be within a few generations of the current High Matriarchs' lifespan, so the stories would be relatively new in their oral history. This notable event of a mass exodus, alongside the later years of the Red Raids, would presumably produce more stories of warning against the Carja -- blasphemers who ventured into forbidden metal ruins, who became misled by taboo items and abandoned the faith and care of All-Mother to wander the Tainted Lands, only to return to the lands they left seeking blood and bloodshed decades later.

Even with Aloy's outcast upbringing excusing limited access to history, there should be more evidence as to ill-will or mistrust of the Carja by the Nora beyond just the Red Raids. Superstitions, stereotypes, phrases of contempt or idiomatic warnings. Oral history has the caveat of not being as reliable as written records, so it stands to reason that there is a chance that the history of the Carja-Nora split was not passed down, either by deliberate omission to some degree, or a generational gap of Matriarchs dead from the Raids and therefore unable to pass on their history.

I just have so many questions about tribal lore. We know from Carja glyphs that they left the Nora and followed Araman west out of the mountains, but what do the Nora tell the younger generations of that split in the tribe?

It's all oral tradition, and mainly about All-Mother and the warnings of the Old World and the Metal Ruins. Was the story of half the tribe leaving omitted from the Nora oral history? If so, why?

Did the split contribute to the declaration of the Sacred Lands and enforcement of the border and rules of exile and outcasting?

Will we get to go back to Nora lands to find out more? There's so many loose ends there, still, I feel. I want to go back and at least see Sona again.

[grubus]

rewatching some let’s plays on Horizon Zero Dawn and I just

Sylens is so fucking funny and I don’t even know how to explain it but I’ll try. The whole “I’m the smartest person alive, everyone else are idiots” is so funny to me. 

“The earth isn’t flat like you thought Aloy!” he says, but even some of our earliest civilizations knew the Earth wasn’t flat. He assumes what HE was taught is something everyone was taught, the earth was flat and he only later found proof it wasn’t, and so when he brags about knowledge and doesn’t get the reaction he expected... he quickly changes subject when Aloy goes ??? I know??? It’s obvious?? ,,,, all flustered, clearly, and trying so hard to act like he isn’t. 

I don’t know it’s just. I adore both Aloy and Sylens. As someone with Autism, they both represent different sides of the spectrum to me and it’s hilarious seeing them crash into each other, conflicts and angry agreements because they don’t have the same special interest or the same way to process things and so CLEARLY that other person SUCKS, and they have very different morals. 

Sylens got the blinds on, focused on knowledge, HE is the righteous one, he doesn’t care, all he wants is knowledge. Does he want to spread it? lmao no why would he! It’s his, he found it fair and square!!

Meanwhile Aloy likes finding things out, but it’s not THE THING for her. It’s a fun biproduct of her mission that quickly becomes a habit. Search out every bit she can. People before knowledge, but there’s still an intense focus to her and that wonderful rude way she acts when she is at the end of her rope. 

Sylens uses the “ancient” words like overload and network and has just a completely different vocabulary that, as someone who was That Kid, reads to me as “I read these big words that no one else did, now I will never stop using them because it makes me feel better/smarter” and it’s so obvious. He’s such a nerd. A mess of a nerd who will either get super redeemed or will never quite understand fully just why everyone wants him dead. 

I dunno, I just find him so funny. A bragging nerd who assumes everyone were as “stupid” as he was growing up, and pretends he doesn’t notice when people tell him no, really, they weren’t. A nerd who believed what he was told until he accidentally stumbled upon some old tech. 

[dawnfromzero]

It’s snowing where I am and watching it out the window reminded me of just how impressed I was with the snow mechanics in Horizon: Zero Dawn, particularly in the DLC section. I live (and grew up in) Alaska, and let me tell you it was oddly rewarding to see that the environment team on this game really understood snow. They not only adjusted the way Aloy moved through deep drifts, but you got to see different kinds and the way it could really impede your vision when it got thick and heavy. They even nailed the little floating crystallized flakes you get in severely cold weather that makes everything feel bright and sharp as a blade as it scrapes across your skin and makes it hurt to breathe. 

So yeah, shout out to you, snow devs; I see and appreciate the mad amount of work you did!

[altairattorney]

HZD meta: on Sylens and what is to come

I went back to Horizon to get the very few trophies I was missing and continue my NG+ run - which got me thinking about the story again. The plot of this game struck me very deeply, and it feels more and more relevant as time goes by.

More specifically, there are a few things I was reflecting on, about Aloy, Sylens and the future their world has ahead of it.

When I first finished HZD and saw the final cutscene, I thought it was very tasteless of Guerrilla to take Aloy’s closure away from her. Later on, however, I started to realize that they hadn’t. Horizon is, in fact, about two different storylines, the main of which - Aloy’s - is over and never needs to be reopened again. The second story… is another matter entirely.

So, here are a few thoughts.

This specific HZD game is no doubt about Aloy and her own story. She got the personal closure she much needed and deserved. Only, her story happened to be the centerpiece of a much bigger puzzle that touches upon the fate of the entire world. Is that story also over, or isn’t it? Aloy chose to pursue her own goal, and didn’t seem to care much for the grand scheme behind the fate of humanity. In other words, she didn’t feel it was her place (if it was even possible) to divulge that knowledge yet, or ever. She moved on with her life, as, I would say, was her right. And this is the major disagreement between her and Sylens all along.

The fate of APOLLO opened a hornet’s nest on the colossal disaster Ted Faro unleashed, and Sylens, selfish as he is in his motives, is not wrong in wanting to find out more about Zero Dawn. For all we know, capturing HADES may as well have been the only hope of long-term salvation that the world has. Not that this is Sylens’ goal, but it remains, if you will, a positive side effect. Why? Because Zero Dawn didn’t at all work as intended thank you Ted Faro. HEPHAESTUS is threatening people, the functions are all rogue, the habitats on this reborn Earth may still be unbalanced due to the lack of predators, and GAIA is gone. Can this Earth survive with Zero Dawn doing what it wants? Is the planet stable enough to continue without GAIA yet?

It is very important to note, in my opinion, that Aloy isn’t selfish or distant. She is, however, terribly lonely, and has no belief in the idea of society. Her feeling no obligation towards humanity as a whole is a quite natural consequence of her story: she was shunned and abandoned by her tribe because of pointless societal rules, and, as compassionate as she may be, she is clearly shown to have no desire or duty to pay them back. Given the cruelty she was treated with, she is right. The whole game tells us that she has a very well-justified mistrust in societal structures and no belief in overarching/idealistic motivations for the collective good, unless, of course, it is about making a plan to save lives. And this starting position gives her the chance to understand the world of the past: an unfair, unjust society, ruined by the beliefs and actions of many.

Always deriving from her personal story, Aloy has an attitude towards the past that is also crucial to her choice. Her creed has two founding principles: don’t forget, but don’t look back. She never lets go of the injustice she suffered, but does not try to mend it. She builds upon it to go forward. Therefore, it is understandable that her reaction to APOLLO is “this sucks. Well, what can I do about it anyway? We can’t get it back”, which to Sylens is unacceptable.

While Sylens craves to learn things in a selfish way and is a very dangerous man, I think it is important to remember that he still surpasses Aloy in knowledge and understanding of the old world. As players, we come from the old world ourselves; with our understanding, I suspect learning about the loss of APOLLO must have been the biggest shock in the plot to each and every one of us. Total destruction of culture and memory is a very important fear/theme in our time, and nobody, if not people who have evil interests such as Ted Faro, can possibly believe the choice to destroy APOLLO was a good one. Having the scraps of knowledge he could collect from HADES, Sylens may have a more accurate idea of just how much got lost. Hence his extreme wish to recover it - selfishly or not.

Going back to point two, Sylens may also have a hunch on the fact the world is possibly still in danger.

It was hinted that APOLLO still has fossilized physical copies somewhere. I don’t know if TED could possibly get to those - I am more under the impression that he wiped out either the interface or the digital data.

One final thought, and this is concerning Elisabet. Elisabet was a ridiculously smart, and far from gullible, woman. From what the game says, it seems like Faro had his people implement a backdoor, aka the Omega clearance. But you know what? She did NOT trust him. I cannot totally rule out that Elisabet may have foreseen Faro’s meddling, and double-crossed him with the existence of an even higher security clearance literally nobody but herself (and GAIA) knew about. May Aloy be the key to access it?

These are just a few musings I was having while wondering if a sequel will ever exist. Personally, I am not a fan of sequels and I feel no need for one. But I believe there’s enough food for thought to leave the story open for a sequel.

[usedtobewerealpacas-blog]

olin  notes

okay maybe this is SUPER OBVIOUS to everyone but me, but i started a replay of hzd and realized that when you first get to  meridian and investigate olin’s house, there’s a WHOLE DIALOGUE TREE with erend that pops up if you talk to him before uncovering the Secret Basement?

first, aloy can ask like “hey so what’s with that angry group of people yelling justice 4 ersa outside?” and erend is like “it’s NOTHING and i am SOBER and DROP IT” (only to like, immediately change his mind once the Secret Basement is found, but heyyyy.) 

second, aloy can ask erend if he’s ever been here [in olin’s house] before. erend is like “nah, but i have dumped olin’s drunk ass on the front step before after a WILD NIGHT OF DRINKING.” he also feels the need to stress that he is usually quite good at holding his liquor. 

third, aloy can ask what exactly erend meant by olin having “connections in the court.” erend clarifies that olin has never met avad, but does do scouting work for the kingdom sometimes; his connection is to random nobles he sells trinkets to (cue olin with a bag full of old floppy discs/ANCIENT TALISMANS). erend also goes ahead and stakes his life on avad not having anything to do with the whole olin/proving fiasco.

fourth and not related to the dialogue tree but STILL GREAT: in olin’s diary he mentions that he is SO SURE ersa is going to catch on  to him and stab him in the neck and murder him for being a BLATANTLY OBVIOUS SPY, only to conclude that he must be a better liar that he thought because she doesn’t seem to suspect him. he does not spend a single second worrying that erend suspects him. while apparently also having RAGING DRINKING BENDERS with erend  frequently. no concern that erend has noticed he is a spy. no fear erend will stab him. EREND: GOOD DUDE, maybe not the most qualified for his job ???